Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Chicago’s public school educators will not negotiate ‘at the point of a gun’

CHICAGO –
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU)
vowed to stand firm in its defense of the retirement security of
thousands of retired public school educators in the wake of new threats
by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his legislative allies to fire another 3,000
teachers and raise student class sizes. CTU Vice
President Jesse Sharkey said instead of good faith bargaining, “that
sounds like negotiations at the point of a gun.” A salvo launched today
by Illinois Senator John J. Cullteron is the start of what could be
“The Great Chicago Pension Caper.”

While speaking at the City Club of Chicago and upon the heels of a misleading commentary published in the
Chicago Tribune, the Senate president acknowledged that Chicago
Public Schools (CPS) must make a $613 million payment to the pension
fund by June 30, yet failed to mention that the money has already been
budgeted for 2014. He also ignores the fact that
teachers do not receive social security. Pensions are not a gift they
are the hard won earnings of employees who expect that money to be there
when they retire.

Instead of calling on Mayor Emanuel to honor his legal obligation, Cullerton offers a guesstimate of
future cuts based on a calculation that uses Senate Bill 1, the pension
cutting bill passed by the Illinois General Assembly, as a template.
The bill was passed last year to reduce the pension benefits for
hundreds of thousands of workers in the state pension
systems. When SB1 is used as a model for cuts, city workers and
retirees in Chicago are likely to see their retirement incomes reduced
by $400 million in five years. The CTU stands in opposition to that
bill.

How
is the firing of 3,000 more teachers good for children? Non-payment and
underpayment into the fund created the
problem. Pension issues in Illinois stem from revenues, not expenses.
The district made no pension payments between 1995 and 2005 and then was
granted relief from the General Assembly in the form of dramatically
reduced payments. Their decisions will directly
impact the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund with 30,000 active employees
and 22,000 retirees.

“We’ve
had cuts to the classrooms for the past three years,” said Sharkey. “On
top of that we’ve already had thousands of teachers, clerks,
teacher’s aides, security staff and other educational support personnel
laid off. Any change now won’t reverse those layoffs. On top of that
they shuttered 50 neighborhood schools and implemented other cost-saving
strategies like student-based budgeting.
This isn’t an issue of whether or not there is money for this but
whether or not there is the will to fulfill their obligation. We’re not
going to stand by and let them rip off retired public servants.”

Further,
the district has imposed 9-figure cuts on teachers and other staff each
year since 2010. Teachers and district staff have sacrificed.
The district has not. Despite claims of “billion-dollar” deficits, CPS
ended FY2011 and FY2012 with surpluses in excess of $300 million. CPS
could have used some of those budget surpluses to smooth out their
pension liability. Instead, CPS officials chose
to delay action and faced a huge cliff this year.

Irony
is not lost on CTU members that while the district and the Board of
Education cry broke it has found tens of millions of dollars
to spend on the expansion of charter operations, high-stakes
standardized testing.

CTU
spent significant resources and time to craft a solution that would
stabilize both the pension fund, retiree healthcare, and the
CPS operating budget. In fact, CPS and the mayor would not agree with
any of CTU’s substantive plans. They pledged minimal guaranteed revenue
and wanted cuts so deep that active and retired teachers would pay for
the district’s entire normal cost, plus add
$50 million to repay the district for payments it failed to make in
previous years.

Though
the mayor and his political pals would have the public believe the CTU
has been unwilling to negotiate the truth illustrates the
opposite. CTU proposed
revenue solutions that would ensure a stable tax base that primarily
targets corporations and those most able to pay, including closing
corporate tax
loopholes and ending corporate subsidies.

The
CTU remains a good faith partner at the bargaining table but it will
not negotiate alone nor at the “point of a gun.” Impacted
municipal employees from throughout Chicago will take a massive caravan
to Springfield on Feb. 19th to encourage legislators not to
raid their benefits while their wealthy, corporate allies reap the
financial benefits of their hard labor.

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